MauledAgain

For some reason I have not always written a Memorial Day essay over the 21-plus years MauledAgain has existed. I don’t know why. I do know that I have written not only about the memories of those who have fallen in service to this nation but also about the freedom for which they fought and died. Freedom, it seems to me, is an oft-misunderstood concept. In 2023, in Indeed, Freedom Is Not Free, I explained why freedom is not the same thing as unregulated behavior. Last year, in Freedom To Do or Freedom From or Both?, I concluded that there are two sides to freedom, “freedom to do” and “freedom from.” These concepts are mutual, because “freedom to do” is simply “freedom from” regulation, authority, and social constraint, and “freedom from” is simply “freedom to do” whatever is being escaped.

So many of the articles, commentaries, broadcasts, social media postings, cartoons, and memes that address Memorial Day proclaim respect, appreciation, and gratitude for those who fought and died to protect “our freedoms.” In other words, they fought FOR freedom. They fought to DEFEND freedom. But against whom or what have they fought? Freedom needs protection and defense only if there is something that opposes freedom. There are all sorts of names for what opposes freedom, ranging from repression through authoritarianism to totalitarianism, and many hours and words have been devoted to debates over which of these words properly describe what stands in the way of freedom. But does it matter? All of these movements, ideologies, and worldviews can be lumped together under the term “anti-freedom.” Memorial Day is a day to honor those who fought against and died fighting anti-freedom.

Does it not make sense that the best way to honor those who fought and died defending freedom against anti-freedom is to follow a path that does not lead to, and does not wander through, the anti-freedom desert? Does it not make sense that following a freedom path requires those who are alive and benefitting from freedom do their part in standing up to anti-freedom when its ugly head reappears, as it has over the millennia during which humans have lived? Does it make sense to behave in the same manner as those against whom the defenders of freedom fought and sacrificed their lives in doing so? Of course not. It makes no sense to throw away all that was saved, protected, and cherished by those who fought and died, because to do so means that their lives were sacrificed in vain. Do we want them observing this nation and asking themselves, and asking us, “Why did we bother?”

Yet there are those who claim to be “freedom lovers,” many of whom join in Memorial Day tributes of one sort of another to our fallen heroes, whose behavior is frighteningly similar to that of those who posed the threats against freedom that sparked the battles and wars in which the heroes fell. How does one explain this incongruity? The answer rests in that tension between “freedom to do” and “freedom from” that I described in Freedom To Do or Freedom From or Both?. A simple example of this tension is the conflict between “freedom to do” 90 miles per hour on the highway and another person’s “freedom from” injury and death while driving. As I wrote in that post,

What makes the analysis particularly difficult on Memorial Day is a troubling tension between “freedom from” and “freedom to do.” On Memorial Day we remember and honor those who died to give this nation “freedom from” authoritarianism, dictatorship, repression, and ethnocentrism. Yet we also seem increasingly complacent when those who benefitted from the sacrifice of those we honor claim to have the “freedom to do” the very same behaviors the suppression of which was the purpose for which those we honor fought and died. It is particularly disturbing when people who profess a deep admiration for those who gave their lives to protect the nation from those enumerated evils are at the same time supporting people and policies that nurture and enlarge those same evils in this nation. What was the point of so many sacrifices to eliminate authoritarianism, dictatorship, repression, and ethnocentrism when there are people who want those same attributes to become the linchpin of this nation’s existence?

And now, a year later, it isn’t just a matter of those who are “increasingly complacent” but those who are “supportive” of those whose behavior, policies, and decisions are less aligned with the freedom for which many died and more aligned with the ideologies and goals of those who wear the hat of “anti-freedom.”

I’ve written several times that freedom has its limitations, and that it comes at a price. The price is not only the sacrifice of those who fought and died protecting it, but the recognition of those who benefit from freedom that there are limits to what freedom permits someone to do. Freedom does not provide permission to be, or support, anti-freedom. By definition, freedom cannot be, cannot support, and cannot abide, anti-freedom.

Fourteen years ago, in Music and the Tax Brain, I shared some thoughts about the connection between learning and performing music and learning and performing tax. I use the word “performing” rather loosely when referring to tax, but I include everything from preparing tax returns to teaching tax law, from analyzing the tax consequences of a planned transaction to analyzing facts relevant to tax policy decisions. In that commentary, I wrote:

Monday’s Philadelphia Inquirer brought a small item that described the results of research exploring the connection between childhood music lessons and long-term brain health. The headline caught my eye because I could relate to it. When I saw “Those clarinet lessons helped you tune up for your later years,” I had no practical choice but to keep reading. Why? When I was a child, my father taught me to play the clarinet. Or perhaps I should say that he tried to teach me. I made progress, but certainly not to the level that would open the doors to any concert hall. Part of my failure to progress competently was my resistance to what I perceived as an irrelevant instrument in the days when playing guitar – especially electric guitar – seemed to be the gateway to success in a variety of venues. My father would have nothing of rock music. * * * I, however, long ago abandoned the clarinet, though I still own several. I did not abandon my love of music, and dabble with keyboards, though quite inadequately.

So this Philadelphia Inquirer story suggested that I might owe my father an apology. According to the report, researchers examined 70 adults with similar levels of education and fitness, and who had no symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The adults were give a battery of cognitive tests. Who scored the best? Those with ten or more years of musical training. Who scored the lowest? Those with no musical training. Those running the study want to do more research, to determine if the cognitive performance enhancement is caused by the music lessons or by some other factor.

The lead research tossed out an idea that I found quite plausible. “Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older.” If that indeed is the case, then would not the same cognitive achievement be attained by other endeavors requiring years of practice and learning? Certainly more research is in order.

So where does tax fit in? Two questions pop into my brain. Do years of practice and learning involving tax have the same effect as years of practice and learning involving music? Do years of practice and learning involving music make a person more proficient in learning tax? When I was a student in the basic federal income tax course, the professor often referred to “music majors” as a stereotype of students he expected to struggle in the course. Yet, my years of teaching have taught me that music majors do well in tax law. Though I’ve not conducted any empirical or laboratory research, I have convinced myself that the reason rests on the number of shared characteristics between music and tax law. Both require attention to detail. Both require careful reading. Both emphasize the need to recognize and apply patterns and sequences. Both are highly structured. Both are, to some extent, mathematical. Both involve interpretation. Both require precision. Both require the learning of a new language. The only difference between music and tax law that I could find has nothing to do with the learning process. Music makes almost everyone happy. That cannot be said about tax law.

This isn’t my first foray into the connections between tax and cerebral characteristics. Not long ago, in The Tax Brain, I asked:

Is there such a thing as a tax brain? Is there something to be said for the fact that most tax practitioners are proficient in semantic language processing and arithmetic calculation? Are there areas of a tax person’s brain that are larger or smaller than the typical brain, or that show higher or lower levels of activity? Are the brains of tax professionals awash with dopamine or with noradrenaline?

Now, to that list of questions, I add, “Do musicians and tax professionals find themselves in the same part of the intellectual family tree?” Perhaps a more important question is this: “Do tax professionals face a lower risk of cognitive decline as they get older?” There are plenty of anecdotes that I could share. What I prefer to see is an appropriately conducted study.

Note that I suggested both “Certainly more research is in order,” and “What I prefer to see is an appropriately conducted study.”

Today Reader Morris referred me to that fourteen-year-old commentary and directed my attention to two studies. The first, Education, occupational complexity, and incident dementia: A COSMIC collaborative cohort study, concludes that “The meta-analytic results indicated that both education and occupational complexity were independently associated with increased dementia-free survival time, . . .” The study did not dig to the granular level of analyzing the various complex occupations to determine whether tax professional and music professionals have different outcomes with respect to dementia-free survival time, let alone the many other complex professions in which people engage. Nor did the study explore – as it was not designed to focus on – the physical and neurological impact on the brain of engaging in music or tax for long periods of time at a more than superficial level.

The second study, described in this report, looked at the connection between occupations and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In short, “Researchers have found that the risk of death due to AD is markedly lower in taxi and ambulance drivers compared with hundreds of other occupations. And the reason could be that these drivers develop structural changes in their brains as they work.” This difference did not show up when testing for dementia other than AD. The study suggested that perhaps the reason for this outcome is that ambulance and taxi drivers need to use “real-time spatial and navigational skills” in their jobs. Yet persons in other occupations requiring these skills, such as aircraft pilots and ship captains, not only did not experience the same low incidence of AD but “had some of the highest rates of death due to AD.” Bus drivers also did not benefit but fell within the average rate of death due to AD.

The study questions, “And why aren't bus drivers, pilots, and ship captains similarly protected? The study authors suggest these other jobs involve predetermined routes with less real-time navigational demands. Thus, they may not change the hippocampus as much.” I think there is something else involved. I see a difference between ambulance and taxi drivers on the one hand and bus drivers, aircraft pilots, and ship captains on the other, and I wonder if it matters. The former interact with their passengers (consider that ambulance drivers also function as EMTs) whereas the latter don’t interact or if they do, they interact infrequently and with less depth. Other studies, such as New Studies Suggest Social Isolation Is a Risk Factor for Dementia in Older Adults, Point to Ways to Reduce Risk, and Being Social May Delay Dementia Onset by Five Years, suggest that continued social engagement tends to lower dementia risk whereas it increases in older people who are isolated and have little or no social interaction.

And that brings me back to tax and music. Musicians engage in social contact, not only with other members of a chorus, orchestra, or band, but also with audiences, fans, promoters, agents, stage hands, and the entire array of people who interact with the performers. What about tax professionals? Despite the perception that “tax geeks” sit alone immersed in reading the Internal Revenue Code as a novel (though I did do that, years ago), tax professionals interact with clients, with co-workers, with other professionals, with federal, state, and local tax collectors and auditors, with employees, and sometimes with judges. Is this social interaction of sufficient amount? Can it be measured and compared to the social interaction of musicians and persons in other occupations? Perhaps these questions will be the subject of future studies.

According to a recent survey of college graduates by WalletHub, “2 in 3 students think their school is not doing enough to educate them about personal finance.” My first thought was a simple one. Why is it the responsibility of colleges to prepare students to handle personal finance? Answering that question requires an examination of the role of a college education and the responsibilities of K-12 educational systems.

There are many different descriptions of what college education should provide. These descriptions are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Yes, there are college programs and majors that prepare students for specific professions and jobs that cannot be performed competently with only a K-12 education, just as trade schools prepare students for careers and jobs that require more than what is learned in K-12 schools. Yes, college gives students opportunities to grow, to learn more about a wider world than what they saw while in K-12 systems. Yes, college gives students opportunities for self-discovery, for emotional and educational growth, and to develop independence, but those aspects of college can also be experienced in other life paths. Some claim that college teaches students how to think critically and solve problems, but college isn’t the only place that these skills can be learned.

What college should not be teaching, other than in a remedial context when dealing with students whose K-12 educations have been deficient, are skills and knowledge that everyone needs. Why? Those skills and knowledge need to be taught before students graduate from K-12 institutions because there is no guarantee that the life paths they choose will take them to a place where those skills and knowledge can be acquired.

Everyone needs to learn how to think critically and to solve problems. Everyone needs to learn personal finance. These are not life skills that are needed only by people who attend college. That is why these skills need to be addressed in the K-12 system. Of course, they’re not the only skills that need to be developed in the K-12 system. Though K-12 students are instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and many are exposed to courses in science, foreign languages, and history, there are deficiencies. I have written many times about the need for K-12 students to learn basic principles of taxation, to study civics, to learn geography, to learn world history, and to learn how to learn. So it should be no surprise that my answer to the question heading this commentary is simple. Somewhere in the K-12 journey students need to learn about personal finance.

Though I advocate for a mandatory personal finance course (and perhaps an elective advanced personal finance course) in K-12 education, I also propose that parents not abandon the teaching of personal finance to the school system. Though some parents themselves are far from proficient when it comes to their own finances, many parents have learned, somehow, how to handle their personal finances and do so competently. There are ways of teaching children at home about budgeting, saving, taxes, interest rates, and investments without disclosing to the children details that the parents do not want to share with their children. And it’s not just personal finance that needs to be explained at home. It’s just one of many skills and pieces of knowledge that too often don’t get transmitted to youngsters at home for a variety of reasons. Though the K-12 system can provide this education in a professional manner, experiences at home can reinforce what the schools are teaching.

Though I may be wrong, I interpret the result of the survey as an acknowledgement by way too many college students that they are lacking necessary personal finance skills. Is it as many as 2 in 3? Probably not, because there surely are college students who learned these skills through other means but who are aware that their college is not teaching these skills. Perhaps they are thinking that their colleges should be teaching these skills, perhaps because they think that is where they should be taught. Or perhaps they are aware of the deficiencies in their K-12 education and think that colleges bear the responsibility for filling in the gaps left by the K-12 experience. Remedial education to fill in gaps in prior educational systems isn’t limited to undergraduate programs filling in what’s missing in their incoming students. Graduate and post-graduate programs also face the need, and may step up to fill it, when they assess the skills and knowledge of their students.

Trying to live life without personal finance skills is like trying to eat soup with a fork. It might be possible, but it’s going to take a long time, and it’s going to be messy. It’s easier to find a spoon, just as life is easier, much easier, when lived with the ability to handle one’s personal finances.